Water corporations wish to cost as much as 84% extra in England and Wales
Customers are facing having to splash out more on their future water bills after operators across England and Wales announced their intention to charge hefty rises of up to 84 per cent more.
Thames Water, the UK’s largest operator, which looks after 16 million people across the country, is looking to hike last year’s bills with a 53 per cent rise.
The average Thames Water bill, according to a document seen by MailOnline, currently stands around £436, but the firm is looking to push this to £667 by 2030.
Industry regulator, Ofwat, which published the figures today, will have the final decision on how much the bills can rise by, Sky News reports.
Meanwhile Southern Water, which covers 4.6 million customers and businesses across Sussex, Kent, Hampshire, and the Isle of Wight, has asked for the highest increase with a near doubling of bills.
Thames Water, the UK’s largest operator, which looks after 16 million people across the country, is looking to hike last year’s bills with a 53 per cent rise by 2030
Customers may have to literally splash out on their future water bills after operators across England and Wales announced their intention to charge hefty rises of up to 84 per cent more
Southern Water, which covers 4.6 million customers and businesses across Sussex, Kent, Hampshire, and the Isle of Wight, has asked for the highest increase with a near doubling of bills. Pictured: Swalecliffe wastewater treatment works, operated by Southern Water
It wants to push an average payment of £420 a year to £772 – the equivalent of 84 per cent – by 2030.
Severn Trent Water, which looks after the Midlands, is looking to increase customer bills by almost £200, from £398 a year to £580 by 2030.
All eleven water and wastewater firms originally requested bill rises to the regulator in July, but these figures have now been revised by the companies.
Only one – Wessex Water – is not seeking a higher bill than previously stated and is asking for a modest rise of 29 per cent, from £508 currently to £658 by 2030.
Taken together, the companies want bills to rise 40% on average and cost £615 a year by 2030, compared to the current average bill of £439 a year.
The price hike requests come as water companies across England and Wales have faced unrelenting criticism in recent years for dumping untreated sewage into Britain’s rivers and seas.
Ofwat fined Thames Water, Yorkshire Water and Northumbrian Water just shy of £170million between them for failing to address the issue, in August.
Campaigners have slammed water firms for upping bills and pocketing millions while ‘sewage infrastructure crumbles’, arguing that all investment work should have been funded with existing customer bills instead of making households ‘pay twice’.
Earlier this month it was revealed water company executives were awarded bumper bonuses last year – totalling £9.1million – despite sewage spills into waterways more than doubling last year.
The bosses of disgraced firms received more than £20million in total, including basic pay, pension contributions and bonuses.
Analysis of Company House records by the Liberal Democrats, found water firms including Thames Water, Severn Trent and South West Water all increased their bonus pool for executives, despite polluting waterways with raw sewage while at the same time around a fifth of all drinking water is lost in leaky pipes before reaching the tap.
Records show 2023 was also a bumper year for the amount of sewage dumped into waterways, with Environment Agency data revealing more than 3.6m hours of sewage were spilled, up 105 per cent year-on-year.
The biggest bonus payout for executives from England and Wales 11 biggest water firms overall was by Severn Trent, who paid its top executives an eye-watering £3.3million in bonuses.
Thames Water is also in the midst of a £15billion debt crisis – but nearly doubled bonuses to executives from £746,000 in 2022/2023 to a staggering £1.3m 2023/2024.
The water company said in July that it only has enough money to continue trading until the end of May 2025.
Bosses have been battling to land a cash injection in the hopes of keeping afloat.
Total hours water companies in England leaked sewage into rivers, lakes and the sea in 2023 shown by the areas they cover
The company has also held talks with both existing shareholders and outside investors.
The company said it wants to invest £20.7bn in its services over the period, including upgrading its ageing infrastructure.
It also proposed £3bn in extra spending under so-called ‘gated mechanisms’.
The company said it would qualify for investment cash by meeting these performance goals.
Chris Weston, chief executive of Thames Water, said in July: ‘We want to deliver a considerable increase in investment in our infrastructure, with total expenditure of £20.7bn in our core plan and a further £3bn through gated mechanisms.’
He added: ‘The money we’re asking for from customers will be invested in new infrastructure and improving our services for the benefit of households and the environment.
‘They are not being asked to pay twice, but to make up for years of focus on keeping bills low.’
Sarah Bentley, Thames Water’s previous chief executive, has previously said the firm had been ‘hollowed out’ by ‘decades of underinvestment’.
Water industry bodies have warned that Ofwat’s plans to cap water bills could create a ‘material risk’ that suppliers may fail to raise enough cash to invest in stopping sewage leaks.
Thames Water, one of eleven companies asking to raise its bills, is also in the midst of a £15billion debt crisis
Industry trade association Water UK said Ofwat’s draft plans to limit the rise in household water bills to £19 a year on average will hold back firms’ ability to improve their services.
Ofwat, which announced in its interim decision in July that bills could rise by 21 per cent, is due to make its final decision in December.
